Reading & Phonics
Reading Curriculum Statement
At Nicol Mere, we believe that reading is a fundamental life skill—the cornerstone of learning that opens the door to knowledge, imagination, and lifelong curiosity. Through reading, our pupils develop the ability to learn independently, think critically, and broaden their understanding of the world beyond their immediate experience.
We are committed to fostering a genuine love of reading in every child. Our aim is to create lifelong readers who find joy, comfort, and inspiration in books. Reading is woven into the fabric of our curriculum, enabling children to build vocabulary, deepen comprehension, and develop their understanding of language, supporting all areas of learning.
Children at Nicol Mere are immersed in a wide variety of high-quality texts, including fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. They are exposed to diverse authors and voices—from classical literature to contemporary works—offering them rich cultural, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual experiences. Carefully chosen texts support children’s development as reflective, empathetic, and informed individuals.
Through our reading curriculum, we aim to not only build fluency and comprehension, but also to instil a lifelong passion for books that will support our children throughout their education and beyond.
Curriculum Intent
To offer our children depth of reading opportunities and experiences that they would not normally have.
To provide our children with the skills, knowledge and vocabulary needed to be confident independent readers.
Promoting our school values and British values through themes and purposefully chosen texts.
To use reading as a tool to increase our children’s knowledge.
To prepare our children for the next steps in their learning journey.
Implementation
Phonics: Early Reading
At Nicol Mere, we use our own synthetic phonics programme to deliver the teaching requirements of the reading National Curriculum for Key Stage 1. . In reception and year 1, all children participate in daily phonics sessions delivered in small groups. During these lessons, speaking, listening and spelling activities that are matched to the children’s developing needs are taught.
We draw upon observations and continuous assessment to ensure our children are stretched and challenged. Children are identified early if they may need additional support. Different phases are worked through: learning and developing phonological knowledge and understanding. The opportunity to apply their growing knowledge in daily guided reading sessions is continued at home through carefully chosen home reading books.
Big Reading
Big Reading
Once children have successfully completed the phonics programme (Year 2), they take part in a daily, thirty minute ‘Big Read’. During this lesson, children are taught the on-going reading strands from the National Curriculum; as well as this, the ‘Big Read’ is used as an opportunity to teach and develop children’s comprehension skills:
Retrieve and record information/ identify key details from fiction and non-fiction
Summarise main ideas from more than one paragraph
Give/explain the meaning of words in context and identify/ explain how meaning is enhanced through choice of words and phrases
Predict what might happen from details stated and implied
Make inferences from the text/explain and justify inferences with evidence from the text
Identify/ explain how information/narrative content is related and contributes to meaning as a whole
Make comparison within and across texts
This hierarchical sequence of skills is visited and built upon in each unit of work.
Skills in Italics are those taught in KS1.
As children move through the year and through the school, they will experience texts of increasing difficulty to practice, apply their comprehension skills.
Reading within English Lessons
Reading within English Lessons
Reading and Writing are intrinsically linked, because of this, our English curriculum follows a clear sequence. Teachers use a range of challenging and stimulating texts which exemplify key features of a genre and writing elements that are expected in children’s writing at each stage.
Throughout their time at Nicol Mere, children will be immersed and will experience a range of genres covering non-fiction, modern and classical poetry and fiction by a range of poets and authors from around the world. These genres will build as they move throughout the school, so that by the end of Year 6, the children are equipped with knowledge and experiences of genres to allow them to select books for purpose independently.
Teachers carefully plan for the on-going reading objectives from the National Curriculum for their stage as well as applying comprehension skills to gain meaning from the text.
Reading within other Curriculum Lessons
Children will practise, use and apply their reading skills regularly in other curriculum lessons as a way of acquiring new knowledge and developing subject specific skills. Where appropriate, teachers will use texts linked to other curriculum areas to enhance and deepen learning in a meaningful context.
Home Reading
Children have access to a range of quality fiction and non-fiction and poetry books suitable for their stage in reading:
Phonics based book
Book Banded reading Scheme
Free Readers
Children and parents are encouraged to read regular at home, changing books when necessary. We use home reading records and diaries to track reading activities. Teachers assess pupils regularly to ensure that they are accessing the correct book.
Parent Workshops
Reading is given high priority at Nicol Mere. We offer a range of workshops for parents including Phonics and Early Reading, Developing Comprehension and End of Key Stage Requirements. Parents are encouraged to contact the teacher if further support and guidance is needed.
Catch Ups & Interventions
Throughout the academic year, children are identified to receive additional support with their reading. Interventions which include, additional phonics, daily reading and comprehension practice which are carefully planned for and monitored by the teacher.
Enrichment Opportunities
Children receive many opportunities to celebrate and to encourage a love of reading outside of the curriculum. These include Theatre Trips, World Book Day celebrations, author/poet visits, theatre companies and Interschool Challenges.
Impact
Our mission is clear: reading is a key life skill and is the bedrock for learning new knowledge. It enables and empowers our children in becoming independent learners and broadening their experiences beyond that of their immediate surroundings.
We aim to ensure that all children fulfil their human potential. We have a supportive ethos and our approach supports the children in developing their reading ability and understanding of the written word. All children are supported at each stage of their reading journey through the expertise and enthusiasm of our teaching staff, to ensure they leave the school confident, independent readers who have a love for reading. Regular and ongoing assessment informs teaching. Intervention is put in pace in a timely manner to support and enable the success of each child. These factors ensure that we are able to maintain high standards, with attainment and progress by the end of KS2 being well above the national average.